A Fresh Look On Music and Pop Culture

Month: June 2018

Alessia Cara is starting the next chapter of her career with “Growing Pains,” but it is important to reflect on where she has been with her debut album, Know-It-All. Here are my Top 5 for the album below.

“Here”

Her debut single has the moody R&B feel that I wish the album had more of. It solidified Cara as the “anti-social pessimist” underdog which we all feel like inside.

“I’m Yours”

Cara can’t be negative, no matter how hard she tries, when she’s falling in love. I love how in the song, she still tried to keep an attitude, but despite her best efforts, keeps falling. An interesting take on a love song.

“Four Pink Walls”

The only song Cara wrote by herself on her debut album, “Four Pink Walls” in actually the strongest song lyrically, showing off Alessia’s potential. It definitely is an anthem for anyone that had a dream that seemed unreachable.

“Wild Things”

Know-It-All seems to be the soundtrack to the underdogs, but in this song highlights that you aren’t alone. I love the “yayayaya” chant in the background.

“River Of Tears”

The amount of pain, vulnerability and frustration that Alessia Cara shows on the song is great. With just a piano, her voice and emotions, Cara showed that she didn’t need a lot of background noise to get her message across.

My favorite album is Yours Truly because I love the old school, Babyface feel. I really miss her collaborations with Big Sean, but my favorite collab partner of her’s is Cashmere Cat. His single “Adore” featuring her vocals is probably her best song.

Her album, Sweetener, is due out in August and below is a playlist of Grande’s favorite songs from her albums. Check out a playlist of Grande’s favorite songs below.

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In anticipation of the August 10 release of her new album, Queen, Nicki Minaj announced a joint tour with Future. Nicki hasn’t been on tour since 2015-2016 for The Pinkprint Tour, so it is exciting to see what she does. Nicki will also be headlining the Made In America festival this year with Post Malone. Future is new stranger to joint tour, he went on the Summer ’16 with Drake two summers ago.

Taylor Swift likes to give her fans a little surprise during each concert. The 1989 tour was known for its surprise guests during “Style,” but the reputation tour is known for its surprise acoustic song during each show. Below is a running lists of songs that have been performed thus far, and some suggestions for new songs to add to the list.

“Enchanted”-Speak Now
East Rutherford, NJ July 21
*Also played “So It Goes..” instead of “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”

“22”-Red
Foxborough, MA July 26

“Change”-Fearless
Foxborough, MA July 27

“Ours”-Speak Now (Deluxe Edition)

Foxborough, MA July 28
*Also played “So It Goes..” instead of “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”

“Out Of The Woods” –1989

Toronto, ON August 3

“Come Back…Be Here”-Red (Deluxe Edition)

Toronto, ON August 4

*Also played “So It Goes..” instead of “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”

“A Place In This World”-Taylor Swift

Pittsburgh, PA August 7

“This Love”-1989

Atlanta, GA August 10

“The Lucky One”-Red

Atlanta, GA August 11

“Invisible”-Taylor Swift

Tampa, FL August 14

“Breathe”-Fearless
Miami Gardens, FL August 18

“Better Man”-Little Big Town cover (she wrote the song)

*also performed “Tim McGraw” with a full band with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Nashville, TN August 25

“Jump Then Fall”-Fearless (Platinum Edition)
Detroit, MI August 28

“Begin Again”-Red

Minneapolis, MN August 31

“Tied Together With A Smile”-Taylor Swift

*Also played “So It Goes..” instead of “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”

Minneapolis, MN September 1

“The Story of Us”-Speak Now

Kansas City, MO September 8

“Forever & Always”-Fearless

Indianapolis, IN September 15

“Hey Stephen”-Fearless

St. Louis, MO September 18

“Speak Now”-Speak Now
New Orleans, LA September 22

“Wonderland”-1989 (Deluxe Edition)
Houston, TX September 29

“White Horse”-Fearless

Arlington, TX October 5

“All Too Well”-Red

Arlington, TX October 6

“I Knew You Were Trouble.”-Red

Perth, Australia October 19

“I’m Only Me When I’m With You”-Taylor Swift

Melbourne, Australia October 26

“22”-Red

Sydney, Australia November 2

“Starlight”-Red

Brisbane, Australia November 6

“Out Of The Woods”-1989

Auckland, New Zealand November 9

“I Know Places”-1989
Tokyo, Japan November 20

“Wildest Dreams”-1989

*Also played “So It Goes..” instead of “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”

Tokyo, Japan November 20

Songs by Album, So Far

Taylor Swift-7 (counting “Tim McGraw,” which was not acoustic)

Fearless-9

Speak Now-8

Red-11 (Not counting “All Too Well” or “22” three times or “I Knew You Were Trouble” twice)

1989-7 (Not counting “Out Of The Woods” or “Wildest Dreams” twice)

reputation-1

Other-3

Songs That Should Be Added To The Set

“I Almost Do”–Red

While everyone applauds “All Too Well” as Red’s saddest moment, I find “I Almost Do” as the underrated ruby of Red. The sadness of reminiscing about a lost love while also letting it go because it would hurt too much to try again is vulnerable Taylor at her best.

“Breathe”–Fearless (Finally played August 18!)

Many below think this song is about a romantic relationship, its actually about the end of a friendship. A different territory for Taylor that should be highlighted during her concert.

“Enchanted”–Speak Now (Finally played July 22!)

What I love about this song is the journey that it takes you on. You feel that you are on the date that this song is inspired by, and I’ve always confused about why this song wasn’t a single.

“Everything Has Changed”–Red

The song is meant to be played on a guitar, and I feel like it will fit into the quiet, low key moment that the acoustic set is. Bonus points if she brings Ed Sheeran out for it.

“Hey Stephen”-Fearless (Finally played September 18!)

I always thought this was a adorable song, and I think it would be cute for the audience to sing along with the humming.

Camila Cabello is also a fan of this song, talking to TRL that it is a song that soundtracked her life.

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We are roughly half way in to 2018, meaning it time to highlight the best of the year thus far. While we are waiting for the anticipated summer releases, like Drake’s Scorpion, the first half of 2018 has already brought great music. Check out the list of the best songs and albums below.

SiR-November

Probably the most underrated artist on TDE, SiR’s November shows the essential characteristics of a promising artist: a cohesive album that takes you on a journey and relatable lyrics that don’t sound generic.

Black Panther The Album

The best movie soundtrack I’ve heard in quite some time, this album, executive produced by Kendrick, fits the movie perfectly. From a song told from the perspective of the villain (“King’s Dead”) to the collab that we never knew we needed (Khalid and Swae Lee) this album is as memorable as the movie.

Drake-“God’s’ Plan”

Right now everyone is focused on Drake and Push-T’s beef, but lets not forgot Drake biggest accomplishment this year. “God’s Plan” was number one for 11 weeks on the Billboard 100. It’s a motivational song on top of a trap beat, with a memorable video of Drake giving the whole video budget away to the people of Miami.

Swae Lee ft Slim Jxmii and Rae Sremmurd-“Guatemala-From Swaecation“

Even though this is from Swae Lee’s solo endeavor, Swaecation, Slim Jxmmi is featured on this song. His rap verse is the perfect compliment to Swae Lee’s frothy lyrics on this island infused jam.

Childish Gambino-“This Is America”

“This Is America” replaced “God’s Plan” as the number one song after premiering its vivid video. There is something beautiful about the number one song is America featuring the line “black man, get your money” in the chorus.

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Known for soundtracking Summer 2017 with his single “Crew,” GoldLink would be a great hip-hop show to burn off more energy after the festival or a great jumping off point if you weren’t at the Lolla and looking to start of the night with a hype show.

Carly Rae Jepsen:

Carly is a new addition to the Lolla lineup after replacing Jessie Ware who had scheduling issues, so it is even more exciting that she is having an after show. Carly was amazing at 2016 Pitchfork Music Festival and while a casual listener could go to listen to “Call Me Maybe” you should definitely see her perform songs off Emotions live. Here’s hoping she has new music to premiere by then too.

Alina Baraz

Alina was on my list for acts that I wanted to do an after show, so I’m glad she is on the list. While her most popular song “Electric” with Khalid, I’m most looking forward to her performing her solo song “I Don’t Even Know Why Though.”